Convince Me
by Scout19
Summary: It is a prince's destiny to grow up to be a king... That is, if someone doesn't get to him first. And, sometimes, saving the life of a ruler often leads to the end of your own.


_**Disclaimer:** First of all, I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Final Fantasy series or Disney, or any characters that might happen to either be main characters or cameos within this work of fiction. I am not being paid for this in any way shape or form and suing me would only result in my tears of sadness while the person suing will maybe get some pocket lent and one hell of a student loan...._

_**Warnings:** This is a yaoi story, meaning that somewhere in here there WILL be ridiculously sexy man-sex. Graphic man-sex.... Eventually.... So, uh, be aware of that. Also, there are some disturbing scenes throughout as well as copious amounts of bloodshed and other means things. Um, I think that's about it for now, but there may be more later._

_A/N: HELLO!!! I'm back!! And it only took like two months! That's like a record or something. Also, this time I came better prepared! I have a beta now! Aindel S. Druida has been ever so kind as give up some of her precious time to look over this for grammer mistakes and whatnot, and I am the most grateful person on the face of the planet for it. You guys have a lot to thank her for. Remember those huge run-on sentences that seemed to have no end from Fool's Bet? Yeah, she's helping me get rid of those! Happy days! Among other things, of course. So, a HUGE thank you to her and a HUGE thank you to anyone who actually sits down and reads this. Readers are my life's blood!_

_Now, without further ado! My new Cleon epic! Sit back, relax and enjoy!_

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_**Chapter One: A Fine Mess to be Made**_

For most of Leon's brief life he had been cooped up in one castle or another, never allowed outside of the keep's high gates unless there was a reason related to his multiple trainings or because he was needed to be seen by some large crowd or another so the people could rest in peace knowing that their heir was safe and sound. Yes, Leon Leonhart had been cooped up for most of his life, but it had been for a very good reason.

After all, not everyone wanted to see the prince grow up to be king.

But then things changed. The war ended, knights came home, families were happy once again and everything was going well for the royal family. They had been the guiding light that had brought the loved ones home, that had saved their borders from being overrun by barbarians, that had kept them safe and sound and so Leon was allowed to go out more and with fewer guards. With a fragile peace treaty, now was not the time to be planning coups or sending in assassins from other countries. Now was the time for rebuilding. Now was the time for hope.

What do you say to a thirteen year old kid who knew how to wield a sword like a man, ride a horse like a man, and fight like a man when suddenly the status of the world changed again only a year after he had been given his freedom? How can you tell one who has grown up knowing that some day he would have to risk his life for people he didn't know, to save the lives of thousands upon thousands because they had no one else to protect them that he can no longer go where he wants when he wants? You can't. You cannot tell this man-boy who had to grow up well before his time that he was to return to the coddling and fear that had tainted the majority of his life up to that point.

And so Leon kept his privileges and the world turned perfectly for one more month. One more month of peace and one more month of freedom and then it all came crashing down in the way delicate things were wont to do.

"Your Highness, I really must insist that you stick a bit closer to your guards." The harried knight assigned to protect the prince on his numerous excursions into the city marketplace looked even more harassed today than usual. His blues eyes scanned the crowd nervously and he ran a hand through his short blonde spikes and Leon smiled to himself, knowing that the usually gruff older man would be holding back a rather nasty curse at this point. In public he was duty bound to be courteous and show all due respect to Leon and the office he represented. In private he was more likely to give the young boy a solid hit upside the head for causing trouble.

"But Cid… Would _you_ want to walk with them?" Leon gestured to the trio of hyper-active guards behind him.

Reno, a red-head who was the cousin to a Count somewhere out in the countryside, was bouncing happily on the balls of his feet as he craned his neck this way and that in order to see the various shiny things there were to be seen. Rude, a tall bald man who still carried the desert tan he had been born with, was walking steadily along off to the side and looking more like a brick wall than a knight primed and ready for action. And then Elena, a small blonde woman who wasn't technically a knight but more of an emissary from a land far to the east where woman were trained to defend themselves along with the men as a show of good faith in a time of war, was emulating Reno and practically running into anyone who was not watching close enough to get out of her way.

Cid cringed as he watched Reno nearly get run over by a man pushing an apple cart and then yell at said man for not watching where he was going, yo. "Point made and taken."

"Besides, I'm supposed to keep a low profile, right?" Leon pushed further, being very much the age where testing his limits was paramount. "Supposed to blend in with the crowd and give no one a reason to target me? How am I supposed to do that with the Terrible Trio shadowing my every step?"

"My Prince…" Cid's voice had taken on a warning tone and he leant in closer so that he couldn't really be heard over the crowd. "We've had this fucking argument before. Drop. It."

Leon sighed in the petulant way of young boys everywhere, but he didn't press the subject any further. Prince or no, Cid had proven that he was not opposed to taking a hand to the royal buttocks if the occasion called for it. He still didn't think it was fair to have to put up with round the clock guards and tight time stipulations, but that was just the lot he had to deal with.

They walked on for a few more minutes, desperately trying to ignore the non-professional attitude of the guards behind them before Cid once again turned to his young charge with concern still at the forefront of his expression.

"You have yet to tell me why you felt the sudden urge to visit the marketplace today, my Prince." He turned his head towards where Leon was now contemplating the ground more so than the people around him. "Usually you wait until a festival so as to make my blood pressure skyrocket, I'm sure."

Leon allowed a small smirk at that. Cid always had believed that Leon chose the most crowded times to go into town for the sole purpose of making sure Cid didn't get a moment's rest. He rolled his eyes and shrugged. "I dunno. Sephiroth was saying something about Dad seeing some kind of amulet in the south corner of the market yesterday in one of the stalls the Easterners rent and wanting it, but not having the time to stop."

"So you figured you'd just take a quick stroll and pick it up for him?" Cid asked suspiciously. "It seems like you're going awfully out of your way for a trinket that your father may or may not have really wanted…"

Leon shrugged again. "It's none of your business."

Cid looked down on him contemplatively for a moment before sighing and returning to scanning the groups of city-folk around them for signs of someone who might be a threat. "What did you do…?"

"Why do I always have to have done something bad to want to do something nice for Dad?" Leon crossed his arms defiantly over his chest. "Maybe I just want to surprise him for once. You don't know."

Cid raised an eyebrow in a way that suggested he didn't quite believe the youngster, but let the subject drop anyway in favor of returning his full attention to the merchants and shoppers all around them. Now was not the time to interrogate the boy on whatever it was that he'd probably broken or whatever prank it was that he may have played. Now was the time to make sure that the boy returned from his shopping excursion in one piece so that Cid could fully punish him later.

"Besides, it's not _my_ fault I broke that vase…" Cid's eyes immediately slid over to where Leon was kicking a pebble in an attempt not to meet the older man's glare.

There were things Cid wanted to say to the young prince. He wanted to demand that Leon tell him exactly which vase he'd broken, why he'd done it, and why he thought that some stupid Eastern talisman would make it better instead of owning up to the incident when it originally happened. There was a lot he wanted to do, but a sudden movement from out of the corner of his eye made him hesitate, and it was a damn good thing that he did.

Had Cid given into his urge to berate his charge, he wouldn't have seen the cloaked stranger lurch out from behind a nearby stack of crates. He also wouldn't have seen the glint from the blade he had concealed in its dark folds either as the stranger made a bee-line for the prince, fully intent on ending the youngster's life.

It all happened so quickly, then. There was no moment of suspension where time seemed to slow and Cid knew exactly what he should do. There wasn't even time to draw a blade himself. He grabbed Leon's arm and pulled as hard as he could in an effort to get the boy behind him where he would be harder to get to. He was vaguely aware of the shouts of the guards behind them as they leapt into action, but he knew by the time they got there it would be too late. They had been walking too far ahead for the trio behind them to do any good.

There was a splash of blood staining the cobblestones now, though Cid was hard pressed to tell who it had come from. He managed to get the struggling prince firmly behind him and he raised an arm in defense as the assassin's blade circled back for a fresh attack, the molten silver reflected in the sun's summer glare now dripping with bright crimson. There was a loud screech as the knife's sharp end slid against the metal bracers clasped around Cid's wrists and the assassin jumped back, his cloak swirling around him and the heavy hood effectively hiding his face.

Cid felt himself being pushed back as there was a blur of red to his left and a blur of blonde to his right. The assassin grunted deep in his throat, proving that he was a male, and a young one at that before turning smoothly and bolting off down the street with Reno and Elena fast in pursuit. The older swordsman growled low and tensed to spring up and into the chase as well, but a soft whimper from behind stopped him.

He looked down to see that he still had an overly tight hold on the young prince's arm, but that wasn't what was causing the boy's distress. He was slumped down on the ground with Rude kneeling as his side, curled the best he could with Cid keeping one arm captive, dark hair dripping blood and Cid immediately paled and dropped down to his knees, releasing Leon's arm as he went, watching with the sick clench of fear in the pit of his stomach as the prince's free hand went to his forehead where the other one was pressed tight against a deep gash between his eyes.

"We need to get him back to the fucking keep, and quickly." Cid's voice was tight with fear and Rude nodded once before gracefully rising to his feet and scanning the now panicking crowds for someone who might be able to help them.

"Here!" Both men looked up in surprise as a young boy, not much older than the wounded prince, jogged over to them with a dark mare at the end of a rope. "You can borrow Starfire!"

Cid allowed his eyes to run thoroughly over the new boy, taking in his mop of dusty blonde hair and lean body that was lightly muscled in the way of a youngster that knows the meaning of a hard day's work. His bright blue eyes reflected his concern for the wounded boy in front of him, but Cid was still loathe to trust. There came a much louder groan followed by a spurt of even darker blood and Leon tilted dangerously forward as though he were about to lose consciousness and Cid's decision was made for them.

"Rude, take this kid's horse and get the prince back to safety!" Cid commanded and Rude jumped to follow his directions, scooping up Leon's prone body and mounting the horse in one fluid move. He took the reins the blonde boy offered him and they were off through the quickly thinning crowd as fast as they could without adding an innocent bystander to the list of the injured.

As soon as the pair turned a corner and were out of Cid's sight he allowed himself to relax. He would be no good to anyone if he arrived at the castle as a tight bundle of nerves and adrenaline. There were things that were going to have to be done. If…. And here he almost wouldn't let himself think the words, though he knew such an event could truly come to pass… If the prince died from his wounds there would be an uprising for certain, and Cid would need to be on his toes if that time were to come in order to protect his king the way he had been unable to protect his prince.

"That was Prince Leon?" Cid started as turned to look down at the strange boy beside him. The little blonde was staring in the direction Rude had taken Leon with a wide-eyed stare. He blinked and shook his head, directing his attention at Cid with a frown on his face and a crease of worry across his smooth brow. "Is he going to be alright?"

"I sure hope so." Cid grumbled, more in an attempt to convince himself than this brave, young boy. "Well, you'd best be coming with me if you want to get your horse back."

"Where are they going?" The boy asked as he fell in with Cid's quick step easily as though he'd spent most of his life keeping up with adults, and if he had come from one of the poorer sections of the country like Cid suspected, he probably had.

"Back to the keep where the prince's doctors can treat his wound." Cid answered tersely. He was _not_ in the mood for talking, but he didn't want to be rude to the one person who had tried to help them. If Leon managed to pull through this it was because the horse the boy had so selflessly loaned them had gotten him there in time. He spared another glance in the boy's direction, but the blonde was now focused on what was in front of him as opposed to the haggard knight beside him. "Thank you, boy, for doing what you did. If he lives it is thanks to you and your horse."

The boy flushed and turned his head away. "I just did what anyone should have done for an injured person. It's not a big deal."

Cid made a noise of agreement in the back of his throat but he wasn't convinced. The others in the marketplace had been more concerned with protecting themselves and their wares. They hadn't spared the slightest of glances at the hurt boy lying bleeding on the ground, and yet this mere child had given up his own horse, and a nice looking one at that, in order to help someone he didn't even know. That it had been the prince was merely a coincidence to this child. He would have been willing to help anyone.

"So they're going to the castle?" The boy pressed on, and Cid couldn't quite blame him. He didn't look a day older than Leon and he had just witnessed someone attempt to cut down a boy his age in a crowded market. Such things did not lead to peace of mind. The boy had every right to be asking questions; Cid just wished he would find someone else to ask so that he could fret in peace.

"Yes, they are." Cid responded and the boy spared a slight smile before letting his face slip back into a worried scowl to rival Cid's. "These aren't exactly the best circumstances for a castle visit, are they?"

The boy shrugged. "I was going to have to go there sooner or later, and if I'd gotten there sooner then I wouldn't have been able to help you. Someone up there must have been watching after you."

Now Cid's interest was piqued and he almost forgot the uncertainty that awaited them once they were safely inside the keep's sturdy gates. His pace slowed and the boy looked up at him in confusion as he slowed as well so as not to out-walk his older companion.

"You were on your way to the keep?" The older man asked curiously. The boy was clothed in what could only be described as a step above rags and had calluses on his hands as big as a copper piece. He did not look like someone who would ever have business inside the exclusive walls of the keep.

"I came to the city to sell Starfire and a noble's servant liked her so much he put up twice her price if I could manage to get her to the royal stables by the end of the day." The young boy shrugged. "I usually would never sell a horse to a man I could not meet, but the truth is that we need the munny."

Now that was a story Cid was used to hearing, at least in part. Peasants everywhere were parting with items they had sworn never to let go in order to put food in their mouths and in the mouths of their children, but he had never seen a salesman quite so young. "Aren't you a bit green to be selling animals at the market?"

Another shrug, and this time when the boy raised his shoulders Cid paid attention. This boy was more than lean, he was almost skeletal underneath the much too large tunic and baggy breeches. "Not every man came home from the war. I have to do what I have to do to make sure my family survives."

He looked up at Cid now, full in the eye for the first time since they'd met, and his blue eyes were burning with a determination born of not having anything else to hope for. The blonde swordsman nodded gently in understanding. There were more boys and girls like this one than most people knew, and yet here was a child who had not given up, a boy who was willing to risk the only investment he probably had in order to loan it to a wounded stranger. It was pure luck that it was the prince he'd just loaned his horse to and not some beggar who would rather go to the dungeons than return a prized animal that could be sold or butchered for their own gain.

"You are doing the right thing, boy." Cid added gently as he picked up the pace once more and the boy fell right back into step.

They said nothing more on the relatively short trip to the iron gates leading into the keep's inner sanctum and the boy faltered only once as the guards nodded solemnly to Cid and spared a bitter glare at the young boy following in his footsteps. The older blonde spared him a quick reassuring grin. A grin that didn't last long, however, as he was met with a sight he had never thought to see once they entered the open courtyard leading up to the steps of the fortress within.

"Reno?" Cid's statement was half-question, half-startled yelp as he caught sight of the usually proud red-head wrapped in chains and tossed to the dirt like garbage by a much larger man that Cid didn't think he'd ever seen before. He looked around him and caught sight of the stoic captain of the guards, Vincent Valentine, watching the proceedings with a much crueler scowl on his features than usual. Figuring there wouldn't be any one around who knew more, Cid immediately strode over to the taller man. "What is the fucking meaning of this?"

"He was caught on the West end of town just a few minutes ago trying to leave the city." Vincent unclenched his teeth in order to speak more freely, and Cid felt something like dread drop to the bottom of his stomach. "Based on eyewitness accounts he was seen giving a man in a cloak similar to the one who recently made an attempt on our prince's life a bag of money before heading for the checkpoint. He's been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy of treason, and that is probably going to be the least of his worries if the medics cannot control Prince Leon's bleeding soon."

"And what happened to Elena, then?" Cid demanded, shocked that someone like Reno could even be _suspected_ of having a hand in what had just transpired. Sure, he was not the most professional of soldiers, but he would never have betrayed the prince. He was loyal almost to a fault even if he did have some unsavory personality flaws hidden under the surface.

"Missing and presumed dead." Vincent answered crisply as both men watched in grim humor as Reno was hauled to his feet once more, spitting curses all the way. "All we're waiting for here is Lord Sephiroth to show up and read Reno his rights and then it's straight to the dungeon for him. If he's lucky, he'll tell the interrogators the name of the man he gave the munny to and he'll get off with living out the rest of his life in prison. If he's unlucky…"

"It's the god damned gallows." Cid finished grimly.

The corner of Vincent's mouth lifted in a cruel ode to a smirk. "More like the chopping block. Lord Sephiroth is a proponent of getting it right the first time."

Cid lowered his voice and both men moved in a bit closer so as not to be over heard. "And if he doesn't have a fuckin' name? If he's being set up?"

"Then he'll be tortured while he rots in prison for the rest of his life." Vincent whispered back matter-of-factly. "We don't have to like it, but we do have to live by it. Under Lord Sephiroth it has become the law of our land, which is probably why someone wanted the prince dead. Should Prince Leon come to power, he will put a much firmer hand on the way investigations are handled in our country, and the High Inquisitor's cronies know this well."

Cid nodded glumly. So Vincent was thinking along the same lines he was. This had the ring of a plot from the inside whether Reno'd had a hand in it or not. There were many people who did not enjoy this uneasy peace time. There were many lords and ladies who'd benefited from the spoils of other's defeats. Any one of them could have been behind the attempt on the prince's life, and convicting one of them would be next to impossible.

"And so Reno is set to take the fall…" Cid sighed heavily and shook his head as he watched Reno take a solid strike to the face before falling silent. The red-head was now staring sullenly at the large wooden doors that would open soon enough to reveal his sentencer and everyone present knew that the sentence they had in mind was not a good one. "Fuckin' hell…"

Reno did not have to wait long to come face to face with his accuser as those heavy doors burst open mere seconds after Cid's last statement. All present fell into immediate silence as the High Inquisitor and right-hand man to the king, Lord Sephiroth of Hallow Bastion, strode into the courtyard as though he were out for a pleasurable stroll instead of preparing to doll out a death sentence on someone who was more likely innocent than guilty.

"I see you didn't manage to run far, my little guardsman." There was a victorious smirk on Sephiroth's pale face and his eerie jade eyes were glowing with joy at having the chance to mete out his brand of justice in person for once. Flicking a stray piece of his long, silver hair over his shoulder, he cocked his head to the side and studied the dirty and bruised man before him much in the way of a hunter closing in on a wounded doe. "Would you care to save us some hassle and tell us the name of the man you paid to kill Prince Leon now, or shall we have to take you down into the dungeons and find out the hard way? It's your choice, but we will find out eventually."

"Fuck you." Reno spat a mixture of blood and saliva on the ground at Sephiroth's feet. "Even if I knew something I wouldn't tell you a damn thing, you fucking jackass!"

The recently gathered crowd roared with laughter while Vincent and Cid turned their heads away in disgust. They didn't have to know for certain what happened in the torture rooms deep beneath even the furthest cells in the dungeons to know that Reno was not in for a pleasant night. Not even their worst imaginings could probably do The Pit, as some prisoners bitterly called it, justice.

"So it's going to be the hard way, then." Sephiroth's smirk widened and his delicate features took on an almost animalistic gleam, as with a sweeping gesture he signaled for the huge brute holding onto Reno by the scruff of his neck to take charge of escorting the prisoner to his new cell. "Your choice… Take him away!"

There was a gentle tug at Cid's sleeve and he looked down in shock to see that the blonde boy who had been so kind as to give up his horse for the wounded prince was now pulling on him in an attempt to get his attention.

"That's the guy I'm supposed to give Starfire to." The boy whispered urgently as Cid bent over to better hear him over the jeers of the crowd with Vincent raising an eyebrow in interest in the background. When Cid only looked confused, the boy elaborated. "The man with the red hair in the chains. He was the one who bought Starfire for his master!"

Cid and Vincent exchanged perplexed looks and the blonde knight placed a firm hand on the boy's right shoulder. "I'm sure that we can find out whoever he was buying her for if that's what you're worried about. We'll make sure you get what you bargained for her plus a little something extra for helping the prince earlier."

"But he already paid!" The boy protested, and it looked like he was about to say more, but before he could he was wrenched out of Cid's gasp and pulled up off his feet by another large guard Cid was not familiar with.

"My Lord!" The crowd stilled once more as Sephiroth paused where he was halfway up the stairs on his way back into the castle. He turned slowly, sending the guard who'd interrupted him a glare worthy of his ruthless reputation. "You were right! The boy has been stupid enough to come right here for us!"

Cid watched in horror as the boy twisted around in the guard's steely grasp, dangling from one arm and kicking his legs as hard as he could in an attempt to land a blow hard enough to cause the guard to let go. Cid growled low in his throat and tried to go after them, to do what he wasn't quite sure, but he was stopped by Vincent placing a strong hand on his shoulder. They shared a hopeless look and Cid calmed for the moment. They would do no one any good if they were arrested as well.

Sephiroth seemed perturbed about something for a second, but he quickly recovered as he considered the newest captive in front of him. It didn't take long, however, for his smirk to return in full force and as the young boy screeched to be released Cid closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands. He could suddenly see almost exactly where this was going and all he knew was that he didn't want to watch.

"So he has, so he has." Long, pale fingers stroked a pointed chin as Sephiroth descended the stairway once more, his glinting jade eyes focused on the squirming blonde in front of him. "I would have thought you would be smarter than this, but I suppose a boy is a boy when you get right down to it, regardless of how unbelievably _brave_ you were to attack an unsuspecting child behind a hooded cloak."

"Let me go!" The boy was near to hysterics as he tried futilely to break the hold of the giant who was crushing his wrist almost to the breaking point. "I haven't done anything wrong! Let me go!"

Sephiroth nodded his head almost imperceptibly in the guard's direction and the brute grinned with glee as he tighten his grasp and twisted his own wrist, the boy screaming in pain as there was a sickening crack before going limp in the guard's grasp, biting his lip to the point of drawing blood in order to keep the flow of tears hidden behind his crystal blue eyes. He dangled there for a full minute while Sephiroth watched with barely concealed mirth, the toes of his scuffed boots scraping lightly against the ground as he swung gently back and forth from his broken wrist, and yet he still allowed nothing more than the occasional wince of pain to show just how much he had to have been hurting.

"I have had quite a few concerned citizens come to me today with only one thing on their minds: The little blonde _child_ who accepted a bag of munny from our recently captured red-headed guardsman before pulling up the hood of his cloak and disappearing into the alleyways with a dark mare in tow." Sephiroth licked his lips and looked directly into the strong glare the boy was bravely sending his way. "Now, why would a boy like you be seen taking munny from a complete stranger not even an hour before the untimely attempt on our prince's life?"

"I was selling him my horse." The boy answered blandly, something more like resolve working its way into his glare. To Cid it looked almost as though he had just about come to the correct conclusion as to what was going on, and that he was bound and determined not to give the older man before him the information he clearly wanted.

"You were selling him your only mode of transportation?" Sephiroth asked incredulously and he drew back to send the crowd a perplexed glance. "Your rags aren't the style generally seen around the city, so you must not be from around here. How were you planning on returning home once you'd found a buyer for your nag?"

The crowd twittered around them and Cid curled his fist into a tight ball at his side as the young boy closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "Who cares how I was supposed to get home? I'm obviously not going to be allowed to leave anymore, so what's the fucking point?"

"So you admit to accepting the gold, knowing that you weren't planning on returning home?" Sephiroth smirked triumphantly and there was a smattering of applause from the onlookers. They boy's eyes snapped open and if looks could kill the High Inquisitor would have been dead before he hit the ground. "Brutus, reach into his pocket and show me what he's got hidden in there."

"Yes, my lord!" The guard eagerly went about his task, jostling the poor boy unnecessarily with every movement as he rummaged about in his tattered clothing. The boy went back to biting his lip, and if once or twice his allowed a small whimper to escape he was to be forgiven as he was being bounced quite viciously on his recently broken wrist.

Cid was expecting to see the velvet pouch weighted down by more gold than even a nice horse was worth, but what he wasn't expecting was the second object the guard pulled from out of the boy's pockets. It glinted in the light as the guard rolled it thoughtfully through his fingers, an elegantly embossed golden snake curling its way around the jade handle and intricate silver work on the handle of a wickedly curved blade sheathed in more stunning jade-work… A blade that looked far more expensive than what a lowly whelp from the countryside could ever afford.

"It's not mine!" The boy screeched as he went back to struggling, lashing out with his feet and practically biting a hole through his lip every time his wrist popped or cracked. "The guy with the red hair gave it to me for the horse! I didn't _do _anything!"

"So you are saying that you were _given_ this blade in exchange for a horse that had already been paid for in more gold than she was worth?" The boy winced and hung limp once more. He had given Sephiroth all the information he needed to win himself a life imprisonment. A life imprisonment that would end sooner rather than later with a beheading. "Well, I suppose you might be telling the truth…"

Here the boy's eyes widened in surprise while Cid's stomach plummeted to the bottom of his boots. He knew something about the High Inquisitor the young boy did not. When Sephiroth allowed you to hope, the battle was already lost.

"There is a simple way to find out." Sephiroth waved his hand through the air absentmindedly. "You would have trusted Sir Reno when he made an offer for your nag, I'm sure. A poor boy like you being approached by a noble such as him, and to be paid gold up front! Almost unheard of but since we have already proven here today that Sir Reno is not quite what he seems, I suppose he could have been fooling you, too. Maybe he was setting up your mare as a back-up plan should his escape through the Western gate be blocked. After all, you are a young boy, I could see how you might have been thinking that this was your lucky day. An heirloom and a sack of munny to bring home to Mummy and Daddy. More than worth a long journey home on foot."

The High Inquisitor ran a finger down the hilt of his own sword, fastened tightly at his left hip. "Do you happen to know where it was that the prince was cut this morning?"

The boy crinkled his brow in thought before slowing shaking his head. "I – I couldn't really see. His bodyguard was blocking the way by the time I got there."

"Hmmm." Cid cringed on the inside as he knew that the boy had unwittingly given Sephiroth another weapon to shoot back at him right then, but surprisingly enough, Sephiroth passed on inquiring as to exactly why this suspect had been at the scene of the crime. "Well, for your information, the prince was sliced cleanly across the bridge of his nose, starting right above his eyebrow on his left side and ending at the tip of his right cheek. A head wound like that bled profusely, as can be witnessed from Sir Highwind over there."

The crowd turned to look at Cid and he glanced down at his clothing for the first time since before they had left the keep that morning, He grunted in surprise to see that he was indeed covered in dry blood from holding the prince close to him. It had splattered all over his chest plate and there was a small pool of the stuff staining his tan breeches.

"So, if we know a head wound bleeds profusely, then it would stand to reason that the blade inflicting such a wound would have blood on it, especially if it had been sheathed quickly as the assassin had been forced to take flight almost immediately after his failed attempt on the prince's life." Sephiroth's smirk widened to give the audience a glimpse of his slightly pointed canines. "Brutus, toss me the knife, please."

The guard complied eagerly, excited at having Sephiroth address him directly for the second time that day. He tossed the knife in question over much more gently than he had done anything else and Sephiroth caught it gracefully, holding it up to the light as his cold, calculating gaze ran over its deadly lines.

"If your story is as you say, and you had nothing to do with the assassination whatsoever, then there should be no blood dried on this blade when I pull it out of its sheath, now should there?" Sephiroth waited patiently until the boy nodded glumly. "A knife that was given merely as a price and not a weapon should show no marks of having been used today or any day. After all, it is in bad taste to give someone your dirty sword as a gift, is it not?"

The crowd twittered in agreement around him as many pushed their way forward so as to better see the object glinting in Sephiroth raised hands. The High Inquisitor chuckled lightly as he slowly but surely slid the blade free of its decorated sheath and the steel shimmered brightly in the afternoon sun.

But it was what was between the patches of brilliant and shining steel that had the crowd gasping and the little boy breaking down into tears for the first time that day as he was roughly dragged off in the same direction Reno had mere moments before. For the silvery sheen of the steel blade was marred only by the ruby patches and smears of blood that ran from the sharp tip all the way down to where the metal met the gold filigree of the hilt.

And the High Inquisitor's voice rose sternly above the outright roar of the crowd and the sobs of the boy as he echoed his own words.

"Take him away!"

* * *

"But you said he _saved _my life!" Leon protested stubbornly as Cid effectively kept up his human blockade of the infirmary door. Luckily for everyone, the prince's wounds had looked a lot worse than they had actually been. He was still pale from blood loss, but the gash had been stitched up and bandages applied before he lost enough to threaten his life. "If he _saved_ me, then why is he in the dungeons for trying to _kill_ me? That doesn't make sense."

"It doesn't have to make sense for it to be the fucking truth!" Cid snapped back angrily, and Leon visibly recoiled, the back of his legs hitting the edge of his bed causing him to flop back down. Cid took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a second, and calmed himself. "I'm sorry, my prince, I didn't mean to yell, but not everything makes sense in the world. If Lord Sephiroth says he did it, then he had every right to believe that is the truth."

"And if Lord Sephiroth said he had every right to believe the sky was really purple, would you believe him, too?" Leon crossed his arms over his chest in his usual defiant manner and stared down his knight with a fierce gaze much too old for his young face. "Besides, I also have every right to face anyone who would want to do me harm, as well as to face anyone who would do me a kindness."

"In a courtroom, damn it, not a dungeon cell." Cid argued back. "The dungeons are not the place for a young boy, even if that boy happens to be a prince. In a few days I'm sure Sephiroth will have gathered together enough evidence to take both Sir Reno and the boy to court and you can speak to the both of them then."

"Yeah, just in time for them to be drug off to the executioner." Leon shot back as he eased himself back onto his feet. "Look, I'm _fine_. I've been in this stupid bed for three days now and I am going to go _somewhere_ with or without your permission, and I would rather like that somewhere to be the dungeons where I can thank the boy who saved my life."

"Even if he was also the one to try and take it?" Cid asked curiously. He more than anyone else knew that Prince Leon didn't really see the world the way most people did. He didn't hide his feelings or pretend to like things he didn't. He also wasn't one to form opinions of people he'd never met before, and for that reason alone, Cid knew it was only a matter of time before the young boy worked his way down into the darker parts of the dungeon where Reno and the blonde boy were being held, and Cid found that he really would rather be there voluntarily when that time came.

Leon nodded, sticking his chin out and waiting for the knight to break down and give him what he wanted.

"Look at it this way…" Leon smirked happily as Cid sighed and moved away from the doorframe. "He'll be behind bars and possibly chained to something. What are the odds that he'll be able to try and kill me again like that?"

"My prince, as always, I must inform you that you are going to be the death of me…"

* * *

The dungeons were dark, that was to be expected, and they were fairly dank as well as was also to be expected. The lighting was terrible, and Leon stumbled more than a few times on hidden cracks and uneven stone work as the wavering patches of torch light weren't nearly enough to see by after the bright light of the courtyard. Eventually, however, his eyes adjusted and he stopped stumbling, which was a good thing as the one time he'd had to stick a hand out to find his balance, he hadn't liked the way it had come back nearly black from the grime caked on the walls.

Seeing the young prince crinkle his nose under the clean bandages in disgust as they passed by a bank of particularly rank cells, Cid chuckled. "I told you this was no place for a young boy. These men are poor criminals and if they were ever in the habit of bathing before, they certainly don't have the means to do it now."

"Don't they ever _clean_ down here?" Leon asked, interpreting Cid's statement to mean that he was free to ask a million questions as young boys were wont to do. "It can't be healthy for anyone down here, especially not someone who never _leaves_."

Cid shrugged. "Why would they? That would require munny to pay the servants to do the cleaning. Most of these men are fated to die anyways, and the few that aren't probably aren't going to be sticking around long enough for it to make much of a difference. It doesn't make sense to spend munny on those who cannot and never will provide a service to the kingdom ever again."

"I would think it would be common decency." Leon answered, wincing as there came the unmistakable sounds of someone begging for their life somewhere down a hall to their right. "Surely _someone_ cares about them and their well-being. Even if only one person in the world can be bothered to care, then you're someone worth common decency, even if you don't choose to give it yourself."

"Once again, you surprise me, my prince. Not many people would show mercy on those who rape and murder." Cid had expected a shocked expression to appear on Leon's face, but there was only a steely determination reflected in his grey eyes. The older man sighed and stopped, bending over and whispering in case there were any unwanted listeners in the shadows. "But that mercy is for a different time and place. You've almost been killed once. Don't give anyone an excuse to try it again and you just might be able to do something about this someday."

Leon pondered this for a moment before nodding, motioning for his knight to continue towards the sunken staircase that was in front of them. "So where are they being kept?"

"About as far down as you can go without going into The Pit." Cid answered. "And before you ask, no, I am _not_ going to tell you what The Pit is other than it's where the most severe offenders are questioned."

"Hmm." Leon looked like he was about to ask anyways, but he refrained at the last second as he caught the suddenly serious expression on his guard's face. "So why are they being kept all the way down there instead of up with everyone else?"

"Well, there are four levels of the dungeons under the courtyard." Cid quickly launched into an explanation, figuring that there were plenty of sensitive questions the prince could have asked, and eagerly latching onto the first inquiry that wouldn't include unspeakable horrors and torture. He had a lifetime to discover the atrocities that happened deep underground. There was no need to be breaking what little innocence he had left right now.

"The bottom level is The Pit, and I have already told you that I'm not going to be talking about that. Not now, and most certainly not in a few hours when you think I might have forgotten about telling you 'no'." Cid sent a stern look at his charge and the prince sighed, but nodded anyways and Cid continued on. "The first level, which is, of course, where we entered, is for minor but still dangerous criminals. These are the ones that generally practice thievery and other methods of tricking people out of hard-earned munny."

"Then shouldn't they be in one of the jails in the city?" Leon interrupted.

"They should, but these are men who let things get a bit out of control once or twice. Some are here because they scammed the wrong noble. Some are here because they had one too many glasses of wine before trying to rob a tavern and someone got killed in the process, whether they did it or not. Some have just been to the city jails so many times that bringing them there again would be close to pointless." Cid rolled his eyes. "So let's just say that they have the potential to cause quite a bit of harm should they be allowed back on the streets any time soon."

The stairs leveled off for a moment before continuing downwards and Cid paused on the platform, pointing at a sturdy wooden door. "That's the second level. It's pretty much exclusively rapists. There are a few down there for minor murders and such, but regardless, none of them are going to be seeing the light of day again."

"So even if they just made one, little mistake they aren't going to be let go again?" Leon asked slowly. "What if they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time? What if it was just an accident?"

"Trust me, boy." Cid's voice suddenly became gruff. "What they did was not a fucking accident, and they are not here because they did something once. They are here because they have done it again and again."

There was a brief silence before they both continued on down the stairwell. "The third level is for cold-blooded killers. Contract killers, assassins, mercenaries from the war that didn't take kindly to going out of business, and more nut-jobs than you could care to count. They face the noose or worse, but most of them just die down here. They aren't important enough for a public execution and are just left to rot. If you thought the first level smelt bad, you have no idea what it's like on the third level. Sometimes it takes days or weeks for the guards to notice that someone has died as the stench just fits in perfectly with everything else."

"So that's where we're going." The prince looked like he was about to be a bit ill, and he was eyeing the door they had stopped in front of with something almost akin to fear on his features. "Sir Reno doesn't deserve to be down there."

"He's not in there." Cid turned to continue down the stairs. "There is a small bank of cells between The Pit and the third level for high profile prisoners. Lord Sephiroth keeps anywhere from one to ten prisoners there at a time for the sole purpose of having a direct line between them and the interrogation rooms. I guess he figures the less he has them out from behind bars, the less chance they have of escaping."

"And both Sir Reno and the boy who saved my life are considered high profile?"

"No, they are considered almost too dangerous to be touched." Cid smirked grimly. "Let's just say that neither Sir Reno nor your mystery savior have been very cooperative when it comes to telling Lord Sephiroth's men what they want to hear."

Leon would have asked another question then, but they had finally arrived at the door they needed and Cid pushed it open without any preamble. The prince squinted his eyes against the sudden flare of more torches than the wide hall lined with five cells on each side really required. The first two cells on either side of him were empty he saw, but they were in much better condition than the cells of the first level, and it didn't smell like human excrement any longer, which was a good thing for his nose in any case.

But it was the third cell to his left that had his attention because the second the wooden door had swung closed behind him the red-head in that cell was practically climbing up the bars and yelling to get his attention.

"Reno!" Leon quickly dropped anything even resembling a princely manner as he rushed to the imprisoned noble's side. Aside from Cid, Reno had been his favorite guard; the red-head was not too concerned with manners and decorum to treat Leon like the boy he was instead of the ruler he was supposed to become.

"Leon!" Reno let loose a sigh of heavy relief when he saw it really was the prince pressing his face up against the bars of his cell and not some kind of hallucination. "Dear Bahumut, I thought you were _dead_ the way they've been going on down here."

"I'm _fine_. It was just a stupid scrape anyways." Leon stressed quickly, running his eyes over Reno's tattered clothing and wonderful black eye. "You don't look fine."

"I look a hell of a lot better than _you_." Reno had never been the most respectful when it came to his relationship with the younger boy, and he figured that he was already doomed to either rot or hang so who would care if he bothered with niceties now. "What the fuck are you doing down here? You should be resting or something equally boring."

"I've _been_ resting." Leon whined as Reno caught sight of Cid keeping to the background and sent the knight a resentful look. "And don't you dare go blaming him because I was coming down here whether he was with me not."

"Neither of you should be here." Reno suddenly turned deadly serious. "They are going to be looking for excuses to set you up again, and fraternizing with the enemy will set off warning bells."

"What are you trying to say?" Cid was the one to jump in with the questions now. He had been chomping at the bit to get a chance to ask for Reno's side of the story, but with the prince being pretty much immobile he hadn't been given the opportunity he needed.

"What I'm saying is that if they think you might be trying to help me and Spikey we'll have outlived our usefulness and an 'accident' might take place down in The Pit." Reno narrowed his blue eyes. "They need our confession to clear out any and all doubt with the commoners that the threat against Prince Leon is gone for good with no more conspirators waiting in the wings to take up from where we left off. Then it's only a matter of a year or two for the opportunity to re-present itself and then it's off with Leon's head this time around, but if we become a liability… Who knows what might happen then."

"I knew you didn't do it." Leon smirked happily. "You never would have done anything like that."

Reno snickered. "Well, it's nice to hear that _someone_ believes me, but don't start going around saying you think I'm innocent or we're all in hot water. A life in prison is better than no life at all and no prince left to die for."

Leon nodded solemnly before turning to look at the empty cells around him. "Where's the boy? Cid said he'd be down here."

"Oh, Spike?" Reno pushed off the bars and rocked back on his heels as he peered over Leon's head and into the empty cell across from him. "I guess he's back in his isolation room again. The kid hardly ever leaves it. Talking to him is like talking to a brick wall; only brick walls don't eventually snarl at you and slam an iron door in your metaphorical face."

"Isolation room….?"

"These cells have their own isolation rooms built in as another way to cut down on the unnecessary movement of dangerous prisoners." Cid explained. He pointed to the back of Reno's cell where there was a large iron door hanging half open. "They act up badly enough and instead of being drug up to the third level like everyone else they just get tossed in there where no one has to listen to them anymore."

"Unless they want us in there for whatever reason, they pretty much leave it unlocked. Most of the guards around here wouldn't want to come in here with a prisoner crazy enough to require one of the special cells long enough to lock it anyways." Reno shrugged. "Not that I care. It also means they don't tend to patrol down here and when they do they make it quick. No random acts of brutality to worry about. As far as imprisonment goes, I suppose I could have gotten worse."

"So he's in there…" Leon contemplated the iron door in the cell across from him. "His name's Spike? Isn't that kind of odd?"

Here Reno allowed a genuine laugh. "Nah, no one knows his name. I'm sure he's got one but, like I said, talking to him is like talking to a wall, even for Seph's team of crack torturers. I call him Spike because he's got blonde hair that spikes up like he just rolled out of bed no matter how hard he tries to squish it down. Actually, Zack, the doctor they keep around here, calls him Spike… It just kind of caught on. I mean I can't just call him Kid all the time. That's just rude."

"You're always rude." Cid sniped as Leon continued to study the door with a kind of intensity he wished the boy would put into his studies from time to time. "Why stop now?"

"Hey, I've got to share breathing space with him for the next who fucking knows how long." Reno pointed out. "Making enemies out of the one person who you're pretty much incapable of escaping isn't the brightest of ideas. I mean he might not be the get up and dance type, but he'll do in a pinch if the boredom starts eating my brain."

"How do we get him out of there?" Leon cut into the conversation in order to remind them of one of the reasons he was down here in the first place: To meet the boy who either tried to kill him or who had saved his life.

"Fuck if I know." Reno pinched the bride of his nose as though he were warding off a headache. "I've tried everything from throwing rocks to singing every barroom jig I know. He just… Goes in there and doesn't come out sometimes. It's not like he'll tell _me_ anything. As far as he's concerned I'm a no good idiot who got his ass thrown in jail for something he had nothing to do with. I'm just some guy who's gone and gotten him killed and now he has to live with me until they sharpen the axe."

"But he hasn't confessed." Cid pointed out. "He could just pin all of this on you and be on his merry way."

"Yeah, I have nightmares about that sometimes." Reno seemed to sag into himself. He sent the ominous iron door a confused look before shrugging. "I don't know why he hasn't. He's certainly thought about it, I've managed to get that much out of him the one time he's actually bothered to talk to me. He's a strange kid, that's for sure, but I think he knows deep down that there is something bigger to this than just me trying to trick him. He's just in petulant child mode right now. I'm sure he'll come around."

"You talked to him once and you couldn't even get his name?" Cid asked incredulously. Reno might not have been a very professional guardsman, but he was parallel to none when it came down to getting details from even complete strangers. He said it was charm. Cid said it was his natural ability to bullshit any living thing into submission. "That doesn't sound like you."

"Oh, did I say I talked to him once? I meant to say he yelled at me for a good ten minutes and then once again slammed the iron door and disappeared." Reno admitted. "He's not a happy camper… Of course they did break his wrist, and I'm pretty sure he's got a broken rib or something, too, from the way he moves. I guess if they broke something of mine I would be a little snippy, too."

The corner of Leon's eye twitched upon hearing this and he turned back to Reno. "He saved my life and all he's getting for it is a death sentence and broken bones. I don't think I can blame him if he doesn't want to come out and be buddies."

"The world doesn't have to be fair, but we do have to live with it." Reno stated calmly. He'd been doing a lot more thinking than he generally liked to do over the past few days and it was starting to show. "The important thing here is to just fend them off until you are old enough to defend yourself. Then if we're still around you can start thinking of a way to rescue us."

"Before you say anything, Leon, we know it's not right." Cid jumped in before the prince could loudly proclaim his obvious disapproval at Reno's statements. "But it's not your choice to make. It's Reno's and the boy's, and nothing you say or do is probably going to change their minds at this point… Though who really knows what the kid is thinking right now? He could be plotting a way to set Reno up for the fall as we speak."

"Well, we're not going to learn anything unless we go in there and ask him." Leon frowned deeply as he stared down the iron door blocking his way from getting what he wanted. "I mean, it's not like we've got all day to sit around and wait on the off chance he might decide to come out. Someone's going to notice I'm missing sooner or later."

"If they haven't already." Cid grumbled. "Look, we'll just come back another day. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll be over his voluntary seclusion by then."

"Not bloody likely." Reno muttered to himself. "But it's not going to matter whether you wait for him to come out to you or if you go in there and get him. Not even the almighty Lord Sephiroth could get him to talk. Not a peep. Not even his name. What makes you think that you can just waltz on in there and get him to tell you his life story?"

"Lord Sephiroth hasn't gotten you to talk either." Leon pointed out stubbornly.

"That's because I don't have anything to say." Reno protested. "No matter how hard he hits me, all I have to tell him is the truth, and that's not what he wants to hear. Spike… Spike just goes all silent and glares like he takes even the slightest glance in his direction as a personal affront. I mean, he screams if you hit him hard enough, but mostly it's more curse words than I knew a boy could know and claims of his innocence. It's never anything of substance."

"He may not have tried to kill Prince Leon, but he's guilty of something, then." Cid pondered aloud. "Or else why wouldn't he tell anyone his name, or where he's from? You would think he would be dead set on proving his innocence through any means necessary and bringing in witnesses for his character and what business he had in the city on that day would be a good way to do it."

"He's protecting something." Leon whispered and both older men leant forward to better hear. The prince chewed on his lip for a moment before looking up at his guardians. "What better way to protect something than to just not say anything at all?"

"Yes, but…"

"I have to talk to him." Leon interrupted, his tone of voice carrying a hint of finality that was much more mature than a boy his age should be. "I don't care what you say. I am going to talk to him. Also, I'm only going to ask once, so will you please get me the keys to his cell somehow?"

Cid hesitated, hovering in the too-brightly lit hall mired in indecision. He'd only heard the boy take on that tone of voice twice before and both of those times his pleasantly phrased request had turned into an undeniable order. Thirteen or not, there was still a hefty weight to the prince's commands and there were consequences to not following them, though Leon was not the kind of person to push for them if it could be avoided.

And there was his dilemma. He was about to be ordered to do something he knew he should not do. There was a danger here that had very little to do with the prince's immediately safety, though Cid was not quite sure he knew what that was at the moment. He was about as sure as he was likely to get that a boy about Leon's age from an obviously poor section of the countryside, and with a broken wrist to boot, wasn't going to get the jump on a combat trained boy who was at peak fitness barring his recent injury. He was also pretty sure that the young boy, while being angry, probably wasn't likely to even try. He just didn't seem like the type to strike out at someone unprovoked.

But still, there was more to this than just making sure Leon didn't get his skull cracked open for the second time in as much as a week. He just wished he knew what it was so he could tell the prince a stern 'no' and actually stick by it for once.

Letting loose a heavy sigh, Cid turned to where Reno was watching him with a guarded expression. "What are the odds that Lord Sephiroth still keeps the keys to these cells hanging on that rusted nail in The Pit?"

"One hundred percent." Reno closed his eyes and let out a tight sigh of his own. "I saw them there just yesterday."

"I shouldn't be doing this." Cid looked the young prince in the eye with all the seriousness he could muster. "I should just drag you out of here by your ear, and I would be well within my fucking rights to do so, but I won't. I'm going to give you exactly what you're asking for, but I do _not_ want to hear your bitching if things don't turn out the way you want them to, or if the kid decides to finish what someone else started and cut your head in two."

Leon jutted his chin out stubbornly and nodded. Cid took one last deep breath and walked down the hall to disappear behind a thin, wood door. There was a tense moment of silence before Reno spoke up.

"Leon…" Reno bit at the bottom of his lip for a second. "Leon… I'm sorry. It was my job to protect you and I damn near almost failed."

"It wasn't your fault." Leon quickly jumped to reassure the older man. "You couldn't have known. No one knew."

Reno didn't seemed too enthusiastic about that answer, but if he wanted to say something about it he didn't have the time as Cid chose that moment to reappear with a jangling golden key ring clutched tightly in his large fist.

"Alright. You go in there, pull the door open, and talk to him." Cid made sure he had the prince's full attention before going on. "You will_ not_ go into the isolation room. You will _not_ get it into that stubborn head of yours that you would be better off questioning the kid in private and close the door. If he looks like he is going to so much as _sneeze_ on you, you _will_ move your happy little ass out of that cell and I will lock the door behind you. Promise me, Leon. I'm already doing something that could land me a cell right next to Reno. Don't fuck it up."

Leon nodded solemnly and Cid took that as about as good a promise as he was liable to get out of the youngster. Leon was generally pretty good about taking his promises to heart and Cid was generally pretty sure that the kid actually knew what he was doing from time to time, but still… This was not a situation geared to make anyone comfortable and he would be happier to have it over and done with and behind him.

The keys jingled softly as Cid slid them into the lock and the tumblers pulled back with a loud clank. Leon pulled in a deep breath and tensed as Cid swung the door on its well-oiled hinges. He hesitated on the threshold of the cell, very much aware of the two sets of eyes staring at him and of the nervous tension of the two men behind him.

But he had never been the type of child to let nerves get the best of him and it was with a strong step forward that he strode into the room as though he owned it, making his way to the heavy iron door and taking a deep breath before rapping his knuckles against the cold metal.

The knock echoed through the air. It was almost like the vibrations from the sound bounced through the room even after the actual ringing had subsided and the silence drug on with Leon being the only relaxed person in the room as the two older men waited with held breaths to see what was going to happen. But it wasn't until they has just about given up hope and were about to demand for Leon to just open the door and get it over with when the door slowly swung outwards seemingly on its own as the prince moved a respectable distance back towards where Cid was leaning on the half opened cell door.

The boy was not in good shape, you'd have to be blind not to see that. He had large purple circles under his eyes and his lip showed signs of the first stages of healing after having been ripped open. His tunic was ripped and there was a very unhealthy bit of ribs poking out through the tattered ends and he had his arm in a hastily-made sling that had probably been white or beige in a past life but that was now edging more towards a murky brown than anything else. His other arm was gripping tightly at his abdomen, most likely trying to compensate for his broken rib and there were more than a few bruises showing their angry faces all over the bits of skin his ripped clothing showed off.

But it was his eyes that once again took Cid aback. He had seen grown men come out of The Pit crying with eyes as broken and dead as can be, but this little boy was glaring at Leon with all the force he could muster. Clearly he was not ready to give up the fight, even if he didn't quite know what he was fighting for.

"Who the hell are you?" His voice was on the raspy side, as though he hadn't had a good drink of water in a long time or like he'd been screaming for hours without a break. It really could have gone either way. But his eyes were bright and sharp, their deep blue depths taking in the young boy before him and scanning the two men in the background, searching for threats and waiting to be roughly grabbed and taken away again. "They sending kids to do men's jobs now?"

"Thank you." The boy's eyes widened considerably, as did Cid and Reno's, as Leon immediately bowed down to the other boy, completely exposing his neck and backside.

The boy ran his non-injured hand through his greasy, golden spikes as he looked down at this stranger in confusion. "What the fuck did I do for you?"

Leon straightened up, his lips set in a grim line as he rose up to his full height, only an inch or two taller than the boy before him. "You saved my life. You deserve my thanks."

"Simple as that…" The boy sneered. "You come and say 'thank you' and now you can sleep again."

"No." Leon interrupted, as he could see that the boy was about to gather a head of steam and possibly turn this meeting into a screaming match before withdrawing once again. The boy's eyes widened a bit once more, but he stayed silent in order to hear what the prince wanted to say. "I came to say 'thank you' because you deserve it, and also to apologize. It's my fault you're down here in the first place. If it hadn't been for me you would still be free."

"For all you know I did everything they accused me of doing and more." Leon shrugged and the boy cocked his head to the side and really looked at the prince before him. "Fine. Apology accepted. Are you going to go _now_?"

"If that's what you want me to do." Leon looked the boy in the eyes and held his confused, enraged gaze with his own brand of determination. "But I would like to know the name of the boy who would give up his horse for a boy he didn't even know."

"Yeah, you and everyone else around here." The boy scoffed. "You're no different from the rest of them. You aren't going to hit me because I'll bet it's beneath your station, but you want exactly what they want. Should I offer you up a ready to go confession along with my name as well? Would that make you happy?"

"Only if it was the truth." Leon admitted. "But I don't think it is."

"Shows how much you fucking know." The boy reached out to grab the edge of the iron door in order to swing it closed. "Now get the hell out of here before I decide to knock you out and just leave."

"Please…"

The boy froze, an expression of blatant shock on his thin features. He blinked rapidly as though he couldn't quite wrap his mind around what he just heard and Leon waited patiently for almost a full minute before sighing heavily and turning to go.

"Wait!" The boy's sudden shout startled the prince and he turned just as he was about to step out of the door to find the blonde haired boy looking at him with something close to wary respect in his expressive eyes. "Cloud."

"What?"

"My name…. Cloud."

"My name Cloud."

* * *

_So there you have it! The first chapter! Once again, reviews make my fingers move in a blur of inspiration, so review! Even if it's just like a smiley face... Or a frowny face, though that will make me sad...._


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